Tornado Cleanup in Moore

 On Friday, nearly the entire mission was engaged in Disaster Relief efforts in Moore. It was so weird for me to go back there because I served there. Neighborhoods that I had tracted and places where I taught people were completely gone.  Moore looks like a third world country. It looks like a war zone. As if an army of bombers flew over and carpet bombed the whole thing. The destruction is almost two miles wide. Almost as far as you can see in any direction is destroyed.

  It is heartbreaking to see people stand in front of a cement slab that once used to be their home. They don't know where to start.  We have been doing tornado cleanup for the last four days straight. 

  We helped out in Moore, but it is hard to work there because there are police everywhere looking to arrest looters and robbers. There are lots of valuable things in the rubble of people's homes.  We spent all day Friday digging through rubble looking for requested valuables of an owner. She wanted her cat, her purse, a gun and a few other things. It was so hard to find things, but with the help of some prayers and diligent digging, we found everything she wanted except for the cat.  Miracles happen every day out there. The people who have lost their homes have great attitudes toward life. They realize that they have lost literally everything and so when we found little things like pictures of family and friends or important papers, they are so happy. They shout and laugh and praise Jesus. The lady we were helping kept saying: "The Lord is merciful, the Lord is good."  I love the people in OK.

    Most of our Disaster Relief efforts have been focused out in Shawnee, Little Axe and Newala. Those are little towns out east of Lake Thunderbird. They are in our stake and they were hit by a pretty big tornado as well.  We have been clearing trees and tarping roofs.  There was a man that we helped who had a pretty good sized farm, but everything was gone. The tornado went directly over his house and right through the middle of his farm.  All he has left is one donkey, a few geese and some chickens.  That area of Oklahoma has more trees than the west side of the state and you can see the path of the tornado because of the trees that have been splintered and flung elsewhere.

Serving the people in OK is the best thing ever though. Those Yellow T-shirts help a lot and there are many opportunities to talk to the owner of the house while the crew works. They are so humble and open to everything. 

 Yesterday we helped a man out there clear a lot of debris off of his property and off of his house. When we were leaving, he started to cry and thank each of us individually. It made me feel very united with him and all the other Okies we had served. I have learned that there is a great power behind serving others.  Mosiah 2:17.

     The Church has an incredibly organized way of doing Disaster Relief. (This isn't their first rodeo)  The church is very good and very fast at aiding others. The Church sent 7 semi trucks full of supplies for the relief effort. Bottled water, food and all kinds of supplies have been shipped in to Moore and Shawnee to feed the people without electricity and things they need. They have tons of food and water for the people doing service.    This all makes me think of D&C 35:12.   There are groups of people from Colorado, Kansas, Tennessee and Texas coming to help. There are tons of church groups who have their own t-shirt uniforms that swarm the sites of disaster. 

     President Taylor keeps talking about how these storms are huge in the preparation of 100's to flock to the church and for the church to stand as an Ensign to the world.  The good Christians in OK and the other parts of the "bible belt" will be the first ones to come flocking to the church.   

Today is transfer day. It was moved to today because of the tornadoes. I am getting transferred to Midwest City. It's just east of OKC. My new comp is Elder Charlesworth. We have known each other for a while. There is a lot more that happened this week, but I have to go for transfers now.

                            Love ya

                    -Elder Shumway

Tornado in Moore, OK

On Monday, May 20, 2013 a large tornado cut through Moore, OK causing loss of life and extreme damage. The tornado was a mile wide and stayed on the ground for 40 minutes, wiping out entire neighborhoods and 2 elementary schools. It has killed 24 people, including 9 children.

Bryce's heart is very attached to Moore because he served there for several months in the fall.  He is now serving in Norman OK, 10 miles South of Moore. Bryce sent the following text Monday night:

Hey Dad, President Taylor has asked that we text our parents to let them know we are all safe. No missionaries were harmed. Pray for the people in Moore.

Later, his mission president sent this:

Our hearts and prayers go out to the people who have lost so much today.  All of the missionaries serving in the affected area are safe.  The rest of our missionaries checked in safe earlier today.  We were blessed again. We are grateful for the Lord's protection of his missionaries.

In the coming days our missionaries will be called upon to help with the cleanup from this devastating storm.  We are asking the missionaries who do not have leather gloves to buy some in the next couple of days.  We are also asking those who can afford to buy work boots to do so.  These boots will help prevent foot injuries (from nails) that could be sustained during the cleanup.  There will be some ability in the future to reimburse missionaries for the boot purchases.   As future storms occur, I will keep you updated (provided we have power).

President Nolan Taylor

Tornado

  On Wednesday, Elder Ravsten's first day with me, we had another tornado warning. We went to a member's house because it was getting pretty bad outside, (similar to the way the sky looked last year during that tornado).

 We were watching the news with them so that we could know what to expect and let the other missionaries know what was coming their way.  Then the warning sirens went off, so we all crammed into their shelter outside. We were all soaked by the time we were made it to the underground shelter. There were about 10 adults crammed into this thing.... PMG says to "work closely with members" so I guess that's what we did. HAHA!!!  There didn't end up being a tornado, just a lot of wind and some heavy rotation. (witch pretty much is a tornado that hasn't officially touched the ground...yet). 

     I miss Elder Reese, but Elder Ravsten is a great missionary!  He is the definition of a Workhorse.  He is built like a strippling warrior and he acts like one too.  "And they did obey every command with exactness".  He is a little quiet, but he works very hard. I'm excited to work along side him this transfer.

    We just got a phone call this morning from the mission office about adding sister missionaries in our ward. They want us to look for an apartment that they can stay in. Good things are happening. I love being part of this massive missionary wave influx stuff.  "Operation Mission Expansion" is what President Taylor calls it.

     This week we had a mission conference. Elder Neal L. Anderson of the Quorem of the Tweleve came with Bishop Davies (who gave a talk about a sure foundation in conference) and Elder Suarez. It was a great day. I had the opportunity to shake their hands. They talked about missionary work, planning, miracles, member missionary work and a whole bunch of stuff. It was great!! I learned a ton.

     That is your missionary work MOM!  Getting all of your kids through the temple. 3 down and 3 to go.   
Good job!!
     
     -Elder Shumway

From Brother Sallaway :

Hi! You don't know me, but I wanted to send you a photo of a couple of heavenly Fathers finest children. Your son's service to our family will have eternal consequences of the most sacred kind. I can't adequately express my heartfelt appreciation. He truly is on the Lord's errand. Thank you for sending him to us.

Brother Sallaway

Sallaway Family

 Here is my picture of a typical Oklahoma sunset with the american flag.  It was so beautiful we just had to stop and take this picture.  

There was also a small ice storm this week. It was hot and sunny the day before, but overnight the weather changes fast and everything was coated with ice by morning. As it was melting, there were chunks of ice falling off of the power lines into the street and onto cars. It was sweet!

 

     The other picture is of the baptism we had this weekend. This is the Sallaway family. They have so much faith.  We had finished teaching them all the lessons they need to be baptized and they were all ready and very excited.  Bro. Sallaway is about 78 years old and on the two days before the baptism, he tripped on a rug in his home and fell fracturing his pelvis. We helped carry him into his home after he came back from the ER. It's a hairline fracture, but he cant barely walk. We knew that this would effect the baptism and we asked him when he wanted to postpone it, but keep in mind that Bro. Sallaway has a very similar personality to Grandpa Clark. He said to us: "We're NOT going to let Satan win this time."  He refused to cancel the baptism.   So he and his family were baptized on Saturday. It was one of the best days of my mission! It took THREE  of us to baptize Bro Sallaway. We had to make sure he didn't put any pressure on his left leg. 

     The baptism was supposed to start at 1:00, but it took him about 15 min to hobble down the hallway. He refused to use a wheelchair and he refused to let anyone help him. He kept saying things like "I'll be fine."  and  "I've got it."  It took him almost 30 min to get changed into his jumpsuit. He has a lot of faith to be able to do all that he did. 

     It was a very long baptismal service, but it was so spiritual. We visited the Sallaway family last night after their baptism and confirmation. As we knocked on their door, Elder Reese and I could both feel a big difference in their home. Even standing on the porch. The spirit is so strong in their home.  I love that family! They are great!
     

           Thanks For your awesome E-mail Dad. It opened my mind up a little more.

      -Love Elder Shumway

Happy Easter!

  Thanks for the package you sent me! Elder Reese enjoyed getting that note on his candy. Did you know that Elder Reese's relatives are the people who started and own Reese's peanut butter cups?  

    We have so much candy from Easter! Members of our ward would stop us in the hallways at church and give us little bags of candy they made for us.  We're going to get fat!!!!  

          

          Yesterday (Easter Sunday) we had dinner at Bishop's house and there were a ton of people there that Bishop had invited. Some were not members.  Bishop's wife made us go hunt for Easter eggs with all the little kids after dinner. It was funny. Just picture Elder Reese and I running around in a field with a ton of little kids. It was fun!!!

          We had a good week this week. We are pumped about the 6 baptism dates we have, and we were able to get 6 investigators at church too.  A pretty good week.    We are really excited for this coming week though. We are working hard to meet all of our weekly goals by Friday so that we can put most of our attention on Sat and Sun helping investigators and less actives come to General Conference.  

   I love telling people that we have a prophet and apostles on the earth today, and that this Sat and Sun are perfect opportunities to see them and hear them, to judge for themselves if they are a true prophet of God and not a wolf in sheep's clothing. (Matt 7)      Get to know them by their fruits.     I love conference weekend!

            I learned a lot about the Atonement on Sunday. Actually the past few days. The talks at church were cool. They taught me a ton about the Atonement. I've also been reading this talk called: "His Grace is Sufficient". It is a great talk! It helped me understand the atonement and the Doctrine of Christ better, also our role as those who know the doctrine.

           Elder Reese and I taught the third hour of church for the youth. We talked about the Atonement for a little but tied it into missionary work. We showed the video about the priests quorum in Florida and how they invited each other to church.  Then we had all of the youth write down on a piece of paper, all of the blessings that they have received from the gospel. Then on that same piece of paper we had them each write down two names of friends that they would like to invite to do something such as come to church or read the BOM or go to a youth dance or something church related.  Then they gave us a copy of what they wrote down so that we can follow up with them. We got a ton of referrals that way. It was awesome and spiritual.   I think it probably would've worked with the adults too.

                         I love the spring in Oklahoma!   It is the best time of year. The storms that roll in are so cool. And the lightning flashes every second. We are starting to get all the storms that spring brings. A couple of nights ago, Elder Reese and I were awakened by a storm that was full of lightning and thunder and it was raining cats and dogs and hail.  It rains so hard here!

           I enjoyed your Easter video! It sounds like you all had a great Easter!!!   That's cool that Tanner got baby chicks for the girls.  
        

                                                                  Love Elder Shumway

Shumways in Norman, OK

  I love this ward! This is one of the best wards I've ever served in. It is one of the few wards that I've been invited to attend ward council. And this ward's ward council is very effective. It is usually very centered on missionary work. (I love it because that is what the entire church should be revolved around anyway. It's central to the Abrahamic covenant.) I am convinced that the only way to be successful as a missionary, is to gain the trust of the ward, the Bishop, the Relief Society President, etc. We do that by working very close with all of the members and accounting to them in ward council about what we are doing. When missionaries do this, the ward will trust them with the Less Actives that they work with and the non-member friends that they have. Baptisms always follow those things.

    I don't want to share this next experience to brag, but rather because it was one of the coolest things that has  happened to me on my mission. It made Elder Reese and I grow a greater love for the ward and the work that is going on in the ward.

Yesterday in ward council, Bishop turned the time over to us and our ward mission leader first. Our ward mission leader started telling the council about how we were the "best set of missionaries who have ever served in this ward." Then he told them about all of the things that we have done in the last few weeks that he has seen effect the ward in a good way.  

 Elder Reese and I have been overflowing with Joy for the last few days. Good things are happening.  I never thought that I would be in a ward that prays specifically for the missionaries in their ward during sacrament meeting. It is awesome!

    This ward has not had a convert baptism for about a year and a half.  We will be having a baptism on the 14th of April and 3 baptisms on the 13th of April. We are so excited!   I have become a more bold teacher since I've been here in Norman. I love being bold because you stay on the same page as the investigators. When there is no miscommunication, lots of progress happens.

     I think I forgot to tell you that there are lots of Shumways in this ward.  This week we had dinner at the Shumway's house. It was cool. Bro David Shumway and I talked about how we are related and he told me a bunch of stories about Charles Shumway that I didn't know. Charles Shumway is not who I thought he was. I thought he was a really spiritual guy who was really close to the prophet back then, but he was a normal guy who made mistakes too!  Bro Shumway let me borrow a book that his dead aunt made. It is Called: "The Charles Shumway Family".  I like to read the stories out of it. I also found out how I am related to Charles and which wife I'm from.  I never thought I would be like this about genealogy.

     Did you know that Charles Shumway was excommunicated from the church for a short period of time?  The story is actually funny.  He was a short tempered guy at times and one day he got really mad at some guys who were working on his saw mill in Shumway AZ, and he cussed them out pretty good. So these men Excommunicated him! But after about a day, they let him be a member again. haha!  The church was a little bit different back then.  But Charles Shumway was a really cool guy. He was a hard worker and he had a lot of faith. And he was obedient to everything the prophet asked him to do.     ..... Anyway. just some cool stuff I thought I'd share.

   

                   This is a picture of me and David Shumway. He is from a different wife. He is the Dad of all the Shumways that live in our ward. They live out away from town. It must be a Shumway thing to live in the country.

                 Love Elder Shumway